A Merry Christmas In Christchurch

Our Christmas sojourn to Christchurch was like a quick whizz round the block, although in that time, we managed to eat ourselves silly. But not quite as silly as those trips to Singapore, I mean greed is a relative concept, isn't it?

There were 3 parties in the 5 days we were there, I guess it would have been rude to reject yummy, festive food during the silly season, especially when one is meeting the entire extended clan of relatives, family friends and neighbours all at the same time. And so I was polite. Very polite actually.

Everything edible laid out on the dining table seems to be home-made (what a different and wonderful generation!), from all the lovely sweet treats, to the pinwheel sandwiches to the salmon roulade (a delicious and yet easy-to-make spreading thingy in a roll hence the name) which I've committed to memory for the next party . N's 70th birthday cake, the Christmas cake, our wedding cake! Yes, we scored a traditional wedding cake from this trip, and G got the traditional cake he had wanted, made by his mum. What a relief that we don't have to be sampling more cakes in the next few days in order to make our choice. Now all I need is to wizard up some cake toppers, my choice of decoration would be some red satin ribbon rosettes, G's choice of text would be "Last Day of Freedom". A lovely combination.

We bought the materials for making the corsages and buttonholes, browsed through H's gardening books and discussed flowers. We wandered round her garden and admired the colourful plants and flowers blooming, H is going to rehearse making a corsage over the next few days with the charming little rosebuds she had picked. Another item ticked off the checklist. Ah, delegation is such a wonderful thing, especially to competent resources...

So we enjoyed our first Christmas together, in Christchurch, surrounded by family and lots of homemade goodies. We came back laden with pressies and wrapped in love and good cheer, for the holiday season and beyond.